Great Divide introduces three new beers — and a patio

I hate windows during the summer. I hate them because when I’m at work, I can see the sky and the sun and the birds and all the people who aren’t at work strolling merrily by. Thankfully, I don’t work near Coors Field anymore, because the smell of food and…

Down and dirty on Colfax

While two totally separate establishments, Roslyn Grill (504 East Colfax Avenue) and Nob Hill Inn (420 East Colfax) nonetheless comprise a flaming binary star of degeneracy around which many of Denver’s down-and-out orbit. Because they’re less than a block apart and both cheap as hell, they attract the same crowd…

A spirited plan for Buchi Cafe Cubano

Buchi Café Cubano (2651 West 38th Avenue, 303-458-1328), which has already made a name for itself with stellar coffee drinks and sandwiches, is hoping to add beer, wine and speciality drinks to its menu this summer – pending approval of a liquor license application. Owner Emmett Barr doesn’t plan on…

Denver’s Leopold Bros. distillery gets mad props

The Leopold Bros. distillery in Denver got a shout-out in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. Columnist Eric Felten, author of the weekly column “How’s Your Drink?”, called its gin the best of the new, craft-distilled American gins trying to give well-established British gins a run for their money. Here’s an excerpt…

Down some Liquid Poetry at the Wynkoop

Does your pale ale go down better with some Poe, your stout with some Silverstein and your lager with some Longfellow? If so, then you and your favorite iambic pentameters might want to try Liquid Poetry, a special beer that goes on tap today at the Wynkoop Brewing Company in…

Mayor Hick drives the bung at Stranahan’s

Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey celebrated the corking of its 1,000th barrel on Wednesday, April 8 — which means that the five-year-old micro-distillery has produced 52,800 gallons of whiskey at its facility in the Ballpark neighborhood. And who was on hand to drive home the cork, or “bung,” as it is apparently…

VeeV martini at Houston’s

Although I’m not normally a fan of national chains, I’d been waiting with bated breath for Houston’s to open in Cherry Creek, because I have fond memories of long, delicious lunches at its siblings in Arizona and California. But those lunches were a long time ago, and either I’ve changed…

Hit the Sandlot on Opening Day

Baseball season is on tap, and so is the seasonal reappearance of Denver’s oddest brewpub, Blue Moon Brewing Co. @ the Sandlot, inside Coors Field. Why is it odd? Although the brewery itself – owned by a division of Coors — cranks out Blue Moon and some of the other…

Colorado Bartenders Guild hosts first cocktail competition

For Colorado bartenders, taxes aren’t the only thing due on April 15. That’s also the deadline for submitting recipes to the first cocktail competition of the year organized by the Colorado Bartenders Guild (COBG). And I’ll be helping to judge the results at 6 p.m. April 26 at Trios Enoteca,…

The friendliest bar on the sketchiest block

Across Eighth Avenue and just down the block, the neon-bright liquor store and a bodega are humming with activity — parked cars with their doors ajar, engines idling, low-end bass rumbling the parking-lot pebbles like un-popped kernels of corn; loiterers and potential customers huddling in circles, laughing loudly, talking shit…

Wine, before its time

The eighteenth annual Colorado Mountain Winefest doesn’t start until September 17, but the Colorado Association for Viticulture and Enology just uncorked the winner of its WineFest art contest. “Labor of Love,” by Grand Junction artist Mary Ellen Andrews, will be featured on all promotional materials for the four-day Winefest, and…

Peanut Butter and Jelly Shot at Mozart Lounge

Rock me, Amadeus. I’ve been going to the Mozart Lounge for years. It’s just down the street from my friend Hayley’s house, and we’d made a habit of celebrating her birthday by getting a big group of friends together at “the Mo,” where we always drank too many exceptionally strong,…

Live blogging St. Patrick’s Day from the Fainting Goat: Happy Birthday to me!

This from a guest bar blogger: Hey all, we’re having a great time here in Denver!!! We’re discussing social networking and demographics, the future of journalism, and politics. Woo!!! We have found out that the 18-25 age demographic isn’t as brain-dead as previous thought. They may actually have some positive impact on this planet, but it’s too early to tell. Thoughts?

The Wynkoop’s canny new strategy

The Wynkoop Brewing Co. was the first modern-era brewpub to open its doors in Denver, and this summer, it plans to become the first city brewery to sell its beer in cans. “We’re pushing for June,” says new Wynkoop head brewer Andy Brown, who got the project off the ground…

Tapping into the former Tap Inn

A warning, via whiteboard, from the staff at the Viking (4888 West Colfax Avenue): YOU NEED TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE WHEN: • You run your big fucking mouth because the bar is out of something • You call the bartender dirty names in another language, unaware she…

New Belgium’s Sunshine Wheat gets canned

New Belgium Brewing, which began canning its signature Fat Tire amber ale last summer, will release a second aluminum-clad brew, Sunshine Wheat, in April or May. The move gives more credence to the growing popularity of canned craft beers – a trend that began in 2002 when the Oskar Blues…

The Hangar Bar is still flying high

It’s not easy to belly up to the bar at the Hangar Bar (8001 East Colfax Avenue). The bolted-down stools are positioned so close to the wooden elbow rest/ledge that extends from the chipped, Formica-surfaced bar that you leave with bruises on your sternum and knees if you settle in…

AJ’s Super Bowl Run Through LoDo

Things can get downright neighborly in the LoDo neighborhood, but never more so than on Super Bowl Sunday, when restaurant workers at Dixons, Wazee Lounge and Supper Club and McCormick’s Fish House made some big bets. The loser? AJ Oscarson, a waiter at Dixons, who had to make good on…

Beerdrinker of the Year: A judge’s tale

It’s good to be the judge, and I should know since I spent Saturday afternoon dressed in a black robe and a wig, drinking beer and making history — beer-drinking history. The event was the thirteenth annual Beerdrinker of the Year contest at the Wynkoop Brewing Company, and I’d been…

Lucy’s Mint Julep at Lucy/Comedy Works

I never thought that my mother, of all people, would be at the epicenter of the area’s newest hot spot, but since she moved into the Landmark development, I’ve been much more willing to jump on I-25 and head outside of my usual north of Hampden/south of I-70 drinking territory…